Nellie's father is a judge, afflicted with a species of St. Vitus' dance. When he feels an attack coming on he takes a dose of medicine which always brings relief. One day he forgets the medicine, and feeling the attack coming on he sends Nellie home for the medicine. She jumps into her auto and drives like the wind, pursued by two bicycle cops. One of the cops is a rejected suitor, and he hopes to catch her and arrest her, for spite. The other cop is the accepted lover, and he rides to save her. Amusing situations are shown while the trio are riding at terrific speed. Nellie is arrested, but is released upon the plea of her sweetheart.
A Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle & Mabel Normand comedy short. The film is considered lost.
A Playboy inherits a Western ranch on the condition that he shall run it properly for 6 months. A villain makes an attempt to distract him from reaching the goal, but he, no longer the wastrel of yore, persists and becomes full owner of the property.
Brewster, the bean king, has an option of renewal on a certain bean canning plant owned by Ellis. Ellis does not want to renew so hires shyster lawyer Wingate to help him. Brewster sends Betty to renew the contract but Ellis declines. Later Brewster sends his lawyer along with Ellis' man to persuades her that he isn't crooked. There follows plot and counter-plot, but innocent Betty carries the day.
In his will, Mr. Baird leaves his son Arnold just one seven-passenger auto and a hundred dollars to keep it filled up and in good repair. When James Bennett hears of this, he insists that Baird do something to make his fortune before he can marry his daughter Ruth. Bennett begins by using the car to start a jitney-bus line. This is not terribly impressive to Bennett -- who owns a trolley company -- and he decides he would rather see Ruth married to his controller, William Mott-Smith.
Male and female sales agents, Phil and Ruth, for rival hosiery concerns try to land an order. For a while Phil succeeds and puts on an exhibition but Ruby makes the mannequins use her own brand of hose, flirts with the buyer and wins order away from her rival.
Discouraged chorus girl is torn between a rich man and all he can offer and a starving artist which is where her heart truly lies.
Harpo played the hero, a detective named Watson who "made his entrance in a high hat, sliding down a coal chute into the basement". Groucho played an "old movie" villain, who "sported a long moustache and was clad in black", while Chico was probably his "chuckling [Italian] henchman". Zeppo portrayed a playboy who was the owner of a nightclub in which most of the action took place, including "a cabaret, [which allowed] the inclusion of a dance number". The final shot showed Groucho "in ball and chain, trudging slowly off into the gloaming". Harpo, in a rare moment of romantic glory, gets the girl in the end. This film is lost.
A reporter and a detective team up to solve the murder of a nightclub singer who had been involved in a divorce scandal.
Little Betty has a luxurious home, an army of servants and the costliest of toys. But she hasn't what a child wants most of all, other children to play with. The result is that she runs away and joins a group of children from the ghetto district on the beach. In play she exchanges clothing with a little boy. That evening Betty doesn't return home. Her maiden aunt, an over-zealous guardian, is frantic. She notifies the police. The same evening the father of the boy, who has lost his position and is facing starvation, decides to turn burglar. He steals into the home of Betty's father. The household is awakened and the intruder captured.
Unattractive and poor Polly Gordon, is taken to the college dance by eligible Vincent DePuyster only as part of a fraternity initiation. Suitors flock to her, however, when she inherits half a million dollars from her aunt, but she grows cynical and dismisses them.
Molly, a glamorous clothing model in New York, though yearning for a life of luxury, spurns the advances of her boss's son in favor of a shipping clerk, late of the backwoods.
During a lawn party at his New York home, steel magnate Theodore Morton claims he is bankrupt as a deterrent to Lord Dormer and the Duke of Medonia, two fortune hunters competing for his niece, Betty. After the suitors depart, unscrupulous Carl Gates is informed by his fiancée, banker's secretary Adele Shelby, that Theodore was lying. Carl pursues Betty, who accepts his proposal with the belief that the marriage will benefit her uncle. During a yachting expedition with Carl, Betty falls overboard and is rescued by architect Tom Waring, who is competing in a race. Tom wins with Betty on board, and a romance develops.
Humanitarian Roberta induces her father to hire former convict, Bill, as his gardener. When she leaves on vacation, Bill steals her jewelry and eventually sells a brooch to her boyfriend, Richard, who unknowingly gives it to her as a present.
Amos Kerran and his wife live a traditional, old-fashioned life on a Connecticut farm, while their son and daughter, Arthur and Maybelle, are successes in New York society. The children want to invite their parents to the city at Christmastime but are ashamed of their unrefined appearance.
The story of two feuding Irish immigrant families living in a tenement.
William Bradberry, an absent-minded Egyptologist, turns from a henpecked husband to a dominating one who, unknown to his daughter Betty and wife, writes theatre musical comedy on the side. And saves his daughter from the unsavory millionaire, Victor Smith she almost marries before she marries the decent man Tommy Dawson. A lost film.
Billy Davis discovers that his father's bakery business is in serious financial trouble and leaves college in order to help his family.
Floss Brannon, expelled from college for mischievous conduct, marries Chester Framm, a struggling young student who aspires to be an orator. When Chester's salary as an insurance clerk proves insufficient for the couple's needs, Claire invents a complexion cream called "Angel Bloom." Deciding to combine Chester's oratory prowess with the promotion of Angel Bloom, Floss rents an elephant, coats it with the cream and plans to have Chester pitch the product from the back of the animal.
Passing Through is a 1921 American silent comedy drama film, directed by William A. Seiter and written by Agnes Christine Johnston, and Joseph F. Poland.